Court: DOJ can intervene in redistricting case

Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the National Urban League annual conference, Thursday, July 25, 2013, in Philadelphia. The Justice Department on Tuesday was allowed by a federal court to officially get involved in Texas’ redistricting lawsuit. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke

The Obama administration will be allowed to intervene in a lawsuit waged by a bevy of civil rights groups challenging Texas’ redistricting maps, a federal three-judge panel said Tuesday.

The move officially positions Obama’s Department of Justice squarely against state Attorney General Greg Abbott in both pending Voting Rights Act cases being waged in Texas. DOJ sued over the summer to block the state from enforcing its voter ID law after the U.S Supreme Court struck down the VRA’s preclearance formula.

In an 18-page orderTuesday, two of the San Antonio federal judges — Orlando Garcia and Xavier Rodriguez — backed DOJ’s request to get involved in the redistricting case, writing that the motion has “merit.”

In the process, the two jurists shot down points made by Abbott’s lawyers that claims for the 2011 maps were moot, that DOJ waited too long to intervene and that federal involvement would cause undue delay in the case.

Fifth Circuit Judge Jerry Smith dissented, arguing that “there is nothing to be gained from permitting intervention by the United States at this stage of the proceedings.”

“I can understand the desire of my conscientious colleagues to make sure that
every party with a putative interest is adequately heard and that every relevant point
of law and pertinent fact is considered. I also appreciate that some may view the United States as the “800-pound gorilla” that cannot be turned away. But the interests of justice, including the worthy goals my colleagues pursue, are being, and can be, fully served without the formal intervention of the United States. I respectfully dissent.”